Don't even need patching. Could've CUA keybindings by entering them in the rc file.

  bind ^X cut main
  bind ^C copytext main
  bind ^V uncut main
  bind ^Z undo main
  bind ^Y redo main
  ...

(Those are from an old rc that had around. The copytext/uncut have been renamed in newer versions.)

It blows my mind that this wasn’t more widely publicized over the years. At least this is the first time I’ve seen it, and I learned vim a long time ago. Partly because if it was a choice between weird keys, may as well learn vim.

It blows my mind how many people need directed at the included documentation or config files.

Sheep to slaughter. Before anyone judges me for judging, instructions-included is pretty consistent across disciplines.

I'm not a mechanic but I can figure out routine maintenance/customization.

I'm surprised you, and surely others, arrived at switching editors instead of changing the editor itself. Not in the source or with compilation. The configuration.

I know you say partly, I just doubt there is any perfect editor. All roads lead to configuration.

They're even in the default global config, just commented out at the bottom

That was only one of the reasons. The keybindings were the seed of the idea, but as soon I started thinking about what I would like to change, I realized that I also wanted multiple edit buffers and a directory browser. Essentially it's my all-in-one coding environment.

FWIW, nano can have multiple edit buffer, just add "set multibuffer" in your .nanorc to activate this feature :).

Seriously!? I had no idea. What an underappreciated bit of software nano is.